Simplicity

I wonder if you can look at a play list of someone’s and see a reflection of their personality. I wonder.

I expanded my itunes top 25 most played to top 100 today. It seemed fitting. I am not one to listen to a song and throw it away the next week. Those top songs on my play list are there for a reason.

My top song is Passing by, by Zero 7. I have probably listened to it a couple hundred times. There are only three non chorus verses and yet in its simplicity it somehow moves me.

My next top played song is The Simplest Thing, by Hey Rosetta! Its title reflects its meaning and the seven minutes reflects on love and happiness being the simplest thing. Its so simple. Its so easy! But in the clutter of our complex lives and complex toys and complex thoughts we somehow lose that.

The song starts of somber and slow to reflect sadness and confusion but mid way through jumps to a quick beat to mimic the solution to our problem. We just cheer up, and stop feeling and thinking so down. We move on and we lighten up. Go for a walk. Look at the beautiful world. Sing a song! We all have it in us. It’s the most natural thing to do. Look at a kid. Live like a kid.

The third most played song reflects simplicity in another way. I heard it first in Little Miss Sunshine. Surfjan Stevens with his repeating lyrics and progression hits on life as growth and movement. Life is not static, things move on. Love, growth, movement, death, “all things go,…all things grow.” He sings of traveling with his friend and getting rid of his past life. He travels and grows and feels free. He simplifies his life and accompanied with it is an intense revelation of the world’s beauty.

A car is pretty simple in its purpose but when analyzed, a car causes all kinds of hassles. First you need a manufacturer to make the car. And of course without roads a car would be worthless. So there must be a company to make asphalt, there must be people to make the roads, and then there need to be people to repair the roads as they degrade. But how will we recognize one car from another? And then how will we make sure that everyone is driving a safe car? License plates and regular inspections of course! And then to make a car run we need fuel. So to get fuel we need stations where a car can get fuel. Then to get the fuel there we need trucks, pipelines, tankers, drills, and people! Goodness this is getting confusing. Then how do we make sure that people are not being bad drivers? Then what happens when something goes wrong with the car? What do we do when a lot of people want to bring there cars to one place like a mall? And of course lets not forget the problem of when two roads cross each other. The list goes on. And in the process we become more stressed and lost. We lose sight of the reality.

So what about a bike? A lot less hassles I would say. And then what about two feet? Not much hassle there.

I am a long distance backpacker, triathlete, adventurer, climber, kayaker, and lowly medical student currently living in Norfolk, VA attending Eastern Virginia Medical School and getting out for adventures on weekends.

I am a long distance backpacker, triathlete, adventurer, climber, kayaker, and lowly medical student currently living in Norfolk, VA attending Eastern Virginia Medical School and writing about my adventures on my blog 'Because it's there' at www.graysoncobb.com

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